George Richards

George Richards (c. 1755-1814 or 1816) was one of the earliest American Universalist ministers and among the first hymn writers of the movement. Born near Newport, Rhode Island, he taught school in Boston and served as a chaplain and purser at sea before entering the Universalist ministry in 1789. He was pastor at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from 1793 to 1809 and then in Philadelphia, where he died. He co-edited an early Universalist hymn book published at Boston in 1792, which contained dozens of his own hymns, and issued further collections at Dover, New Hampshire, in 1801 and, greatly enlarged, in 1806.

One of the very earliest American Universalist hymnals: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs "selected and designed for the use of the church universal," prepared by George Richards — Universalist minister at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and afterward Philadelphia, and a poet of the movement's first generation — with Oliver Wellington Lane. It preceded the General Convention's own 1808 collection (which is in this collection) by six years. No digitized copy has been located on the Internet Archive; the PDF scan comes from Google Books, and the HathiTrust catalog record is also linked in this book's metadata.

(Note: this summary was automatically generated and may be inaccurate.)

Richards's second hymnbook, "designed for the use of the Universal churches and adapted to public and private devotion," printed by Samuel Bragg at Dover, New Hampshire. With his 1802 Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs it documents Universalist worship in the movement's first organized decade, before the 1808 General Convention hymnbook. No digitized copy has been located on the Internet Archive; the PDF scan comes from Google Books, and the HathiTrust catalog record is also linked in this book's metadata.

(Note: this summary was automatically generated and may be inaccurate.)